A Dark Moon Rising
by Sanru
Summary: A strange new creature is loose in Manhattan. After a violent murder and an even more violent attack on their brother, the Turtles decides to end this newest threat to their family before It can strike again. Too bad the Foot have plans of their own regarding It.
1. Prologue: Werewolf

Disclaimer: Not mine, though I do keep wishing on stars…

Author Notes: Keep in mind people this is from a rapist/murders point of view so it should be disturbing –even so I tried to keep it semi toned down- but don't worry. He gets what he deserves.

This was at one point called Moon Chronicles: Ascension but after going through such a heavy rewrite I decided to delete that story and make this its own story.

* * *

A Dark Moon Rising

Prologue: Werewolf

* * *

Tonight was the night… She would be his finally.

He smiled to himself as he walked down the sidewalk, maybe forty feet behind her. It wasn't like he was too worried about losing her. She had a pattern, one that he had memorized since deciding she had to belong to him. Every night, she would leave the little music and book store she worked at after it had closed and head to Central Park for a short jaunt through the trees.

She never stayed there for more than two hours as far as he could tell and he had overheard her when she was talking to one of her friends in the store that she lived alone. No one would start to look for her until a few days had passed and she didn't show up to school or she missed a shift at her job. Plenty of time to hide and destroy any evidence after he was done enjoying her. A shiver ran up his spine as he watched her run across the road a ways ahead of him, imagining how well she was going to plead as he claimed her for his own.

He loved making them beg him to stop.

She was beautiful, and had the qualities all his other toys had. She was a rather tall, athletic girl in their mid to early twenties with shoulder length hair. He did preferred brunets but that red head had been feisty and the blonde had screamed so beautifully. This was another blonde and he couldn't help but smile as he thought of the previous blonde's struggles and the fun that they had. He couldn't wait to have this one at his mercy.

He crossed the street then, reaching into the pockets of his jacket to make sure he still had the wire, handcuffs, knife and cloth he would need. He had thought about taking her somewhere to enjoy her longer but it would take too much effort to bring her out of the park without attracting unwanted attention. He could enjoy her enough here. It wasn't like anyone would be wandering through the park after eleven o'clock at night. He just needed to take her to a secluded place and keep her gagged for the remainder of the evening. It would muffle her pretty voice but her soft whimpers would be enough for him.

She entered Central Park through the same gate that she always did. He still wasn't sure what she did in the park this late at night. The only time he had actually tried to follow her through the park he had lost her within steps of entering it. He couldn't afford that tonight and increased his pace slightly to catch up to her. He had to keep her in sight this time around.

He barely made it to the gate in time to see her step off the path and take a straight shot towards The Lake. That explained how he had lost her last time. He didn't know of many people that left the lit paths at night. Then again she was about the only person he had ever known that took a walk in the park at night.

She seemed in a hurry suddenly, moving at a pace just short of a jog as she went through the trees. He realized as he followed her that there was very little reason for him to be overly cautious. She wasn't even paying attention to her surroundings. As long as he didn't make too much noise, she would be none the wiser to his presence.

She kept going right up to the edge of the lake, where she paused and looked down at her reflection for a moment, letting out a big sigh at it. He slowed his own speed, curious as to what she was doing. She stood there for a moment longer before stepping off to the side and into a small grove of young elms. Odd but in the moonlight he could just barely make out her sliding off her purse and jacket before moving on to her shirt, unbuttoning it slowly. Well now, this was a strange turn of events but it would make it easier to take her if she took her clothes off for him. He just had to be patient.

As if knowing that he was watching her, she took her time. She would remove each article of clothing and carefully folding it before setting in on her oversized purse. It was like a strip tease and he could feel the sweat building up on his palms as he ached to rush ahead and grab her.

But no, he had to be patient and reward her for such a performance.

Finally she stood before his hiding place in all her naked glory from the waist up, undoing the loose braid her hair had been in as she stepped away from her clothes, and put her back to him as she looked out over the lake. She sighed and he took that as his clue to begin. He had barely had a chance to do more than shift when she spoke.

"You can come out of hiding now. It's not working. I know you're there."

He was taken aback for a moment as the girl proceeded to remove her shoes. That had been unexpected. He began to wonder if he had picked up on an undercover cop. He knew that they were looking for him. It was all over the news. However if she was a cop, why was she stripping in front of him? After a moment of debate -and watching her slide out of her pants and undies in one fell swoop- he stepped out from behind the tree he had hidden behind.

She fingered the white pendant necklace that still hung about her neck as she looked out over the pond again. "So, you must be the new serial murder in town." She said, much too calmly for his liking. She obviously knew something that he didn't and it put him slightly on edge.

"Serial murder is such a harsh title." He smiled at her as he approached. He stuck his hand into the pocket of his coat and he felt around for the handcuffs. She was almost his. Though if she stayed still and didn't fight it would take away from the experience, maybe she had wanted to die? He wasn't sure if it was worth giving her his gift if that was the case.

"But it is what you are." She stated matter of factly as she stepped away from her belongings. She looked up at the full moon for a moment before looking at him for the first time. Her ice blue eyes seemed to narrow even more than what her heritage had given her and she said accusingly, "You are the serial murderer and rapist that has killed a total of five girls, all in their mid-twenties, with and athletic build and shoulder length hair." She paused for a moment, her head cocking slightly to the side as if she was listening to something far away before adding, "After stalking them –hunting them- for ten to twelve days."

He was starting to become unnerved the longer he was around this girl. Something in the back of his mind had begun to scream at him to run from her before he was caught. It made absolutely no sense. What could she do to him? He was positive he could wrestle her to the ground and he easily outweighed her but at least a hundred pounds if not more.

Even though she was at such an obvious disadvantage, she kept regarding him with a cool, calculating intensity as if he was little more than an annoyance and not a threat at all. That had to be it, all the other girls had been scared but she almost looked like she was bored with this situation. That couldn't be right.

"Typically, I'd tell people to leave but you have killed five innocent girls." She took a step towards him and he found himself taking a step back. There was something about the way that she moved that was unnatural. It hadn't been human.

He wondered when he had become the prey.

"Let's see how much you like being hunted. Let's see how much you like the fear." She had growled that last part out, still walking towards him as he kept backing up. Then she closed her eyes for a long moment and when she opened them again her eyes seemed to be glowing with an unnatural sheen in the low light of the park. As if they were suddenly able to reflect the light back. Whatever this thing was, it definitely wasn't human.

"What are you?" He whispered as he felt a bead of sweat trail down the side of his face. As he watched the blonde tresses that had originally caught his attention seemed to bleach out and turn white in the moonlight. Now everything was beginning to make sense and he understood his earlier feelings, he just hoped that it wasn't too late to escape with his life. "What unholy beast are you?"

She seemed to lean forward, almost flowing down towards the ground, her body shimmering slightly as she seemed to slip away dissipating into a strange pale mist. It barely took more than a second for the mist to rearrange itself and become solid again in an entirely different shape. It's eyes, one blue and one white, seemed to burn into him as the muzzle turned to him and the lips peeled back to reveal a row of sharp white teeth.

"Wolf," he said as he took another step back, recognizing the shape of the creature in front of him even though it was to large to be a normal wolf.. A rumbling growl came from the creature before him that sent the hairs on his neck to stand on end. His eyes flickered from the wolf to the moon behind it and back again. "Werewolf." The creature snapped its powerful jaws at him and shifted itself as if to lunge at him. Finally his legs unfroze, "Werewolf!" he screamed as he turned and tried to run from it.

He ran back in the direction he had come from, thinking that if he could reach the path again that the lights would deter the creature from following him. Behind him the long drawn out howl of a wolf echoed eerily over the Park causing another shiver of fear to trace up his spine. He was almost to the path. He would be safe there.

Something was coming up behind him fast. He didn't hear any sound from the creature chasing him but he could hear the branches and leaves from the bushes it passed being disturbed. The faint rustling and whipping of branches in its wake were drowned out as he began to repeat 'no' over and over again under his breath. He wasn't going to make it.

As if knowing what he was thinking something caught at his ankle at the same time as a large paw shoved at his back. He landed hard on his stomach, a root from a nearby tree driving up into his side. He felt a rib break. He made himself roll over onto his back, blood dribbling down his face from his nose. He must've hit it off a rock or something when he landed.

It was standing over him regarding him with the same intensity that it had had as a human. He coughed slightly as the change in position caused his bloody nose to flow down the back of his throat instead of down his face. Why was it waiting? Perhaps he could reason with it? "Please… Please don't hurt me."

He knew it was the wrong thing to say as soon as it left his lips. The creature snarled at him, the fur on its hackles rising up as it crouched down. He pushed himself away as best he could, lifting his hand up to protect his face and neck as the beast pounced on him. His dying screams echoed through the park like a prayer to the moon hanging overhead.

As they ebbed away into the dark, the almost mournful howl from a wolf took up their place for a moment before it too faded away.


	2. Chapter 1: Too Many Questions

Disclaimer: Not mine, though I do keep wishing on stars…

* * *

A Dark Moon Rising

Chapter One: Too Many Questions

* * *

"So Manhattan now has a killer dog on the loose. How very mundane."

Raphael grunted at the comment as he and his brother listened to the newscaster drone on about the dog attack that had happened the previous night. He blinked, suddenly not quite sure if he understood exactly what Don had meant. However, before he could get his brother to clarify what he had said, Donnie added, "It's just too ordinary for what usually happening in this town."

That's what he liked about Donnie, he was really smart, but never rubbed it into your face or made you feel inferior. He had a habit of answering questions without actually answering the question, like he had meant to add something onto his previous statement all along. He also never tired of repeating or explaining himself except when he was in the middle of some project or hadn't had enough coffee or sleep. The resident genius had a tendency to get snappy then.

"Least that bastard got what he deserved," Raphael said as he nodded to the screen. The police were still waiting for the DNA samples to come back from the lab but it looked like the victim had been the serial murderer and rapist that had been on the loose. "Just wish I had got the chance to deck him one."

Donatello hummed in the back of his throat in agreement as the next story started to air. It had something to do about some new science dohicky that was the reason Don had come out of his lab and wrestled the remote away from Raph in the first place. He didn't mind, it had been a repeat anyways, and Don only fought for the remote when he really, really wanted to see something. Raph wasn't the kind of guy to deny his younger brother something, regardless of what Mikey said, but that also didn't mean he just handed it over easily. It wasn't often he and Don wrestled over the remote. It was nice to see that the egghead could still do it even if he was a bit rusty with his technique.

He stood and stretched, idly glancing at the clock on the wall in the kitchen. Just after eleven, it was finally late enough to go topside for a bit. "I'm going up to Casey's for a bit. Can you tell fearless for me so I don't have to bug him connecting to the spirit world?"

"Sure, but Leo is reading that book April gave him. He stopped meditating hours ago." Donatello waved him off still entirely engrossed on the television.

Raph started for the elevator, pulling out his shell cell to find out where his bonehead friend was. He had to have been zoned out if he hadn't realized that Leo wasn't meditating anymore. Sure enough the scent of the incenses Leo used was absent from the lair entirely. It was probably a good thing he was going out to get some exercise. His focus was completely gone and he needed some air.

The doors to the elevator swung closed as his call finished ringing through to Casey's voicemail. Oh right, he was taking April to see that new movie that came out, Space Broncos or something like that. That was unimportant anyway, this meant he had the night all to himself and what a night it was going to be.

The elevator doors opened again and he all but flew over to the shell cycle. In one practiced moved he leapt on his bike, put the matching red helmet on from where it was hanging from the handle bars and revved the engine. The automatic door to their garage slid open and Raphael shot out into the night.

"New York Nightlife here I come!" He growled to himself in anticipation as he shot out into the street ready to find out what the Big Apple had in store for him tonight.

-Break-

Her hands were still trembling, making it impossible to write out the answer to the calculus problem she was working on. She sighed and set the pencil down, rubbing at her eyes tiredly. She had barely been able to sleep after what happened last night.

She hadn't wanted to kill him.

A deep voice, more like a growl than anything else, echoed through her mind. _'He was going to hurt you, Allison.'_

She dropped her head into her hands and took a deep, shuddering breath. She had known what could happen to her when he had started stalking her several days ago. "It doesn't make it any easier," she said sitting up slightly and letting her hands drop into her lap where they began to fidget uneasily with the hem of her sweater. When they spoke to each other like this, she always felt like she was standing on one of the stone ledges back home, looking out over the forest and mountains.

The comforting presence seemed to settle into the back of her mind waiting patiently as she sorted through her chaotic thoughts of guilt, appreciation and fear. After a moment she took a deep breath and said, "I'm glad you protected me, Saigon, but what right did we have to kill someone? I know what he did would have landed him in jail for life but it's still not right for us to act as a judge, jury and executioner."

The voice was quiet for a moment longer before it began to speak again. Allison used that time to pull a thread from the hem of her sweater and began to play with it. _'When we left your parents' pack, I swore to protect you.'_ A deep growl echoed in her mind _. 'Knowing what he did to those girls, what he could have done to you makes me wish that I hadn't given him such a forgiving punishment.'_

"Forgiving!" she snapped looked up at the wall as if she was looking at someone else. In her mind it felt as if she had turned away from the impressive view and looked at the gray wolf sitting idly behind her. The creature was as tall sitting as she was standing, allowing her to glare angrily into the mismatched colored eyes. "Saigon, we can't keep going around killing people. I'm tired of moving. I'm tired of running. I just want to stay put long enough to graduate from college. If we keep killing people here They will figure out where we are. Just like every other time. They going come to try and catch us..." She quieted then, her head sinking down again to look at the thread that she was tying into knots in her hands. "Please, Saigon, I don't want to lose you."

' _Never,'_ the voice promised. There was a shifting in her mind, not one that was painful, but it signified that Saigon was either embarrassed by something or he wasn't sure he was going to like her response. _'If it allows us to stay here in our current den longer, then I would suggest that we refrain from running for the time being.'_

"No, Saigon," Allison said shaking her head sadly. "It's the only time you get a chance to stretch your legs anymore. I can't take that from you."

' _Yet, it is a sacrifice I am willing to make if it means you will be happy.'_

Allison smiled slightly, "I appreciate the effort to keep me happy Saigon but it's your body as much as it is mine. Just because it's easier for me to move about in this world unimpeded does not make it right for me to dictate your actions." She glanced at the clock and smiled. She knew what they both needed right now was air. "Come, it's just past eleven. No one is going to be in the park now."

' _Perhaps in the future we should run elsewhere then in the park,'_ Saigon suggested. She could almost hear his tail thumping in anticipation. She couldn't imagine what it was like to be trapped in her mind most of the day. She usually got bored within the first half hour of Saigon's nightly romps. At least at home, she had the rest of the pack to run with. Being out on their own was difficult in so many ways.

"I'll take some time tomorrow looking for a less populated part of the city that you can run through." She frowned thoughtfully as she pulled on her coat. "Security cameras might be a problem."

' _Easily avoidable once you point them out.'_

Allison smiled again as she stepped out of her apartment, wondering what the night would bring, as Saigon's tail continued to happily wag in the back of her mind.

-Break-

He was bored.

It was like everyone had decided to pack up and call it an early night. The Foot were holed up in their tower and he had no interest in riling them up on his own. He was bored, not stupid. The Purple Dragons had to be at home, tucked into their cribs, the big babies. Even petty thieves seemed too have decided to take the night off. He had never seen the city so quiet. Kind of refreshing but boring.

So much for a night out on the town by himself, Raphael glared around at the trees as if they had personally offended him. The waning full moon was casting eerie shadows all around him as he tromped through the park. This was what he had been reduced too. He was so bored he was going to see what he could find at the recent dog attack. He couldn't get more bored than this.

About the only difference between where the attack took place and the rest of the park was the yellow police tape. There wasn't even an officer on duty anymore. Raph sighed, deflating slightly as he poked around the area, wondering vaguely if Master Splinter would be mad if he went and started trouble with the Dragons on such a quiet night or if he should go home and accuse Mikey of something just to chase the bonehead about the lair and relieve some of his boredom. He was about to head home and start something with Mikey, regardless of the punishment he was probably going to get for fighting, when he saw it.

"Wow," he said in awe. The paw print he found was eight inches in diameter, almost the size of his cereal bowl. It was depressed fairly deep into the ground, signifying that the dog was heavy, and the slightly deeper portion near the front of the paw meant that it had been running. "That… is one really big dog."

Too big to be a normal dog. Raphael's eyes narrowed as he knelt down and held his hand over the paw print. He knew that there were some large breeds out there but this just seemed too large. Also, if a dog this big was running loose throughout the city, someone should have noticed it. He sat back on his heels and regarded the paw print for a moment before standing up.

He had never thought that he would be moon lighting as a dog catcher but there was something about this situation that wasn't sitting right with him. With genetic manipulation, a small dog could easily become a large, killer beast. He had to find this thing and talk to Donnie. Don knew more about genetics than he did and would be able to shed some light on how big this thing actually was.

He stood and turned to leave, only to pause and glance over his right shoulder. He swore he was being watched but after a minute of staring out at woods around him he dismissed it as unimportant. He was probably just getting himself all worked up for nothing. He started back toward the bike, looping around the large pond near the center of the park.

A twig snapped somewhere off to his right and he spun about on instinct alone, lowering his center of gravity and squaring off his feet, his sais out and ready in both hands to face… the absolute stillness of the park late at night. Raphael sighed to himself and shook his head in disbelief. All it took was the possibility of a genetically manipulated monster to be running around to have him half jumping out of his shell. He glanced down at his belt as he tucked his sais away when something caught his attention on the ground.

A bare human footprint.

Now why humans had decided to start skinny dipping in the pond was beyond him but morbid curiosity had him poking about the area. He wasn't the best tracker among his brothers but it was easy to see that the print wasn't that old. It was possible that the human had been here the previous night, maybe even witnessed the dog attack. Why they hadn't come forward was a bit of a mystery. He assumed that maybe they hadn't wanted to be booked for public indecency or something.

That was when he came across another oversized paw print. "No way," he breathed as he looked back to where the attack had originally taken place. It was almost in a straight shot from this part of the bank. He could almost see the dog lunge through the bushes, down the paved path a ways and then finally bringing the man down just passed the bend. He took a few moments to cement his realization before growling to himself.

The bare human footprint and the paw print were about the same age.

Someone else had been here, probably the dog's owner, and sent it loose on that guy.

This had only been a passing interest but now he wanted answers. Who was the person on the bank that had been here and where had they and the dog gone afterwards? If he took the time, he could barely make out more tracks in the area that had been obscured. They had tried to hide their involvement which just slapped a big guilty label on them as far as he was concerned. It was time he went home and talked to his brothers.

Though he still felt like there was a target on his shell all the way to where he had left the shell cycle.

-Break-

The apartment door was slammed shut as she threw it closed behind her. She pressed her back to it, as if barricading it from what she had seen. In her mind, a low growl was echoing throughout, promising ill of anything or anyone who would try and take her. It took her a moment to realize that she was hyperventilating and she forced herself to stop breathing so hard, holding her breath for a count of five before releasing it and counting again.

Slowly, she slid down to the floor where she brought up her knees and held them close while she buried her face into them. This couldn't be happening. Not already. She took another shuddering breath. There was no way those things had followed her here. She was on the other coast and a lot further north, how could they have found her after one report of a large dog attack? It wasn't possible.

' _Allison, calm down.'_ Saigon's voice was still tense but the growling had gone down a bit. He was just as shaken as she was by this turn of events. _'We weren't followed.'_

She let out a weak laugh and whispered, "Small miracles." She leaned back against the door and stretched her legs out in front of her. She ruffled her hair with both hands as she tried to calm herself down more to think. When they had first come across that thing looking over where they had attacked that man, it was only due to Saigon's iron control that they didn't do what she had wanted and bolted right away.

Saigon had watched the creature carefully as it looked over his paw print and compared it to his hand. He had resented the dog part -he was a wolf after all- but he had decided not to make an issue of it at that time. Just because this one couldn't smell them didn't mean there weren't more Raptors in the area. He didn't want to get into a fight until he knew what he was up against. He had followed it watching it carefully while Allison stayed curled up in the back of his mind, begging him to go home, but he didn't dare until he knew that this thing was gone. That it wasn't all a ruse to follow them back to the den.

Only then had he given into Allison's desire to go home. She had been panicky, nearly forgetting all her coverings before sprinting off into the darkness, racing home. Only now that they were here and he had assured her that they weren't followed, that her stream of thought calmed back down to the normal and not the raging torrent of panic and fear it had become. _'Are you alright?'_ he asked giving her what would have been an affectionate nudge on the hand if their situation was different.

She heaved a sigh and let her head fall back against the door. "I've been better. How did they find us, already?"

' _I don't know. Perhaps it was just a coincidence.'_

She let out another laugh, this one sounding more relaxed and genuine than the previous one. "Since when did you start believing in that?" She got back to her feet and took off her coat and slipped out of her boots. She looked about her apartment for a moment before deflating slightly. She didn't want to pack up again and leave so soon.

' _I don't think that we should leave so soon,'_ Saigon quickly cut off her line of thought. _'While it looked like a Raptor it did not act like one. It seemed confused by the paw print, as if it did not recognize it.'_

Allison frowned as she walked toward the bathroom, feeling the need for a shower now that she had calmed down. "If it wasn't a Raptor, then what was it?"

' _I don't know. We need to find out if it is a Raptor or if it is a threat to us_.'

Allison turned on the lights in the small room and frowned. "Saigon, I'm not a fan of hunting things." She began to strip down and Saigon stayed quiet as she mulled over what he was suggesting. He had a point, there was no sense leaving until she knew what that was and if it was a threat to them. The only way for them to do that was if they caught it.

She turned on the shower and gave the water a moment to warm up. "Alright," she finally said as she pulled aside the shower curtain and stepped underneath the spray. "We'll catch it but until we determine if it's a threat or not we won't kill it."

She could almost hear the frown in Saigon's voice, ' _It will make it easier to figure out what it is_.'

"And if it's not a Raptor and they find out about its existence through the media, they come looking here anyways." She argued as she began to wash her hair. "We're either going to catch it or we're leaving, Saigon. Your choice."

The wolf in the back of her mind shifted slightly before choosing, ' _We'll catch it_.'

-Break-

Raphael loved his brothers -in the platonic family way of course- and there were times that that love had to be dealt out harshly. Right now, he was about two seconds of putting his tech-loving younger brother in a headlock and calling it good. Especially with how hard he was trying –and failing- to hide the smile that wanted to bust out on his face. It really made Raph want to whap him one upside the head.

"Raph, there are dog breeds that big." Don said as his lips twitch suspiciously again. "I doubt that it is a highly intelligent, genetically manipulated canine."

"But what if it is Donnie?" Raph asked. "What if some scientist lost a specimen and its now romping through the city?"

"Someone would have reported a large dog running around off its leash, Raph." Don said, still trying to hide a smile from his older brother. "Dogs that big just don't vanish into thin air without anyone seeing them. Someone probably lost control of their dog and they don't want to be convicted of manslaughter and have their pet put down."

"I'm not buying it, Don. There is something fishy about this whole situation and I'm going to figure it out with or without your help."

"You're going to help the city's dogcatchers," the smile finally won out and Raph turned on his heel and stormed out of the room before he did put his younger brother in a headlock. It hurt a bit for Don to not be taking him seriously but he would never admit that out loud. He had an image to maintain after all.

"I know I'm right, Don," he said over his shoulder as he left his brother's workshop. "My guts telling me that there is something wrong with this situation and I intended to find out what!"

"You may want to invest in a muzzle!"

The mirth in his voice and the quiet snickers after his retreating shell caused Raph's fist to ball up and he headed for his punching bag. He knew he was right. How did that dog seemingly vanish without anyone seeing it leave or enter the park? Why did it go after a wanted rapist and no one else? He wasn't buying that 'wrong place, wrong time' crap. He had seen the partially obscured human footprints on the bank of the pond and knew that somehow they were related. Someone else had been there and that stunk of foul play to Raphael. There were too many questions to paint a decent picture and he was named after a famous painter for a reason.


End file.
